


Some of That Life

by Milliadoc_Brandybuck



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Mutants, Avengers Initiative, Avengers vs X-men, Avengers/X-Men Crossover, Canon Compliant, F/M, Mutant Powers, Mutants, X-Men Inspired, X-Men References, Xavier Institute
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:06:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26216869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milliadoc_Brandybuck/pseuds/Milliadoc_Brandybuck
Summary: Rosamund Easton, or 'Rosie' is a mutant/enhanced individual with a mutation that is hard to hide. She has spent most of her young adult life in the Xavier Institute, hiding from the world. But her mutation is unique, and her powers could be used for more than just teaching the next generation. The only thing keeping her at the Institute and not out in the world was her relationship with Piotr Rasputin, known as Colossus, but after he goes missing on a mission she finds there is little left for her there.So, when she is headhunted by Phil Coulson on invitation of Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D, to leave the X-Men and join the new Avengers Initiative she can hardly say no. She owes it to Piotr to get some of the life they talked about, and whilst there finds herself accepted into a family who see only her and not her mutation. She is a hero, not a mistake. And the Avengers help her in moving on from her love for Piotr, too.
Relationships: Piotr Rasputin/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 1





	Some of That Life

Rosamund Easton of Trick, Pennsylvania, had never been normal. She had known that fact pretty much her entire life, known she was different. She looked physically different or had a knack for certain things; like stopping her baby brother from crying simply by touching his nose with her fingertip, sending him into a deep sleep; like inexplicably climbing trees to heights that her father could not explain; like having an unusual purple tinge to her grey eyes. 

It had become obvious the evening of her thirteenth birthday. 

Of course turning thirteen was a right of passage for many young girls the world over. Usually by that age puberty hits and life becomes difficult. But most girls get spots and periods and maybe low self-esteem. Most girls don’t get what Rosamund had got. 

Her parents didn’t know what to do with her. They couldn’t go to a regular surgeon or a doctor because they simply didn’t deal with that kind of thing. Rosamund became very depressed at only thirteen years old thanks to this… this… mutation. She hadn’t asked for it, she didn’t want it, and yet she had learned to live with it. That meant going to school with enormous coats in the middle of summer, wearing contact lenses to cover the purple, wearing gloves so as not to touch people accidentally and put them to sleep. 

Finding the school had helped. It was just after her fifteenth birthday. She had been dealing with this for two years and it was getting harder to hide. The day Professor Xavier had shown up on her front door had come like a welcome bolt from the blue. He had explained to Rosie and her parents that there were children all over America, all over the  _ world,  _ who had mutations much like Rosie’s, that she wasn’t alone. Rosie didn’t believe it, couldn’t, until she arrived at the school herself. Professor Xavier had been right. Everywhere Rosie looked there were mutants just like her with a surprising array of mutations. She didn’t stand out for the first time in her life. 

Her parents were happy to see her go. They had never known what to do with her, only they had never admitted it. Now they were free to be ‘normal’, and their true feelings were made all the more obvious by the slow retraction of contact that happened gradually over two years. By her seventeenth birthday Rosie had not heard from her parents in months. 

She didn’t care. Xavier’s school was where she belonged. Here she thrived for the first time in her whole life, she was  _ accepted  _ for the first time in her whole life. Sure things were still difficult. It was, after all, a school. There were still students of the school who took it upon themselves to bully her for her small stature, for her eye colour, for… but she learned to deal with it. At first she would ignore it, but then she started learning how to use her powers for her own benefit. It made her quite popular with the underdogs who were also bullied for their mutations. Bullies had no place in her life and she was certain to make sure everyone knew that. It got her the attention she craved. Plus, she was a good student and, as soon as she turned eighteen, a good teacher. Professor Xavier made it obvious that those students who did not feel able to go into the wide world with their mutations could remain at the school to mentor new recruits. They were also allowed to partake in his side-project, a mutant militant group known as the X-Men. They would undertake missions to keep the world they knew safe. That was Rosie’s favourite part of being at the school. That, and Piotr.

Piotr Rasputin was a mutant like Rosie who struggled to hide his mutation, and so he stayed at the mansion rather than go to the wide world. He could turn his skin to titanium and upon first arriving at the school he had struggled to return to his flesh-state. With Xavier’s help he could not control it and he stayed on to help teach new recruits how to do just that with their body-altering mutations. He and Rosie had been friends since she had joined the school. All through their teenage years, and then as soon as she turned eighteen he had asked her out. They dated for a good five years before Piotr left on a mission and didn’t return. She had been heartbroken, and since had lost all faith in the X-Men. Her last mission had been a success but that wasn’t enough for her anymore. She remained on campus but no longer went on missions, and therefore no longer fulfilled her potential. 

That was when she had come to the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D.

And that was why they tracked her down almost a year to the day since Piotr had gone missing. They figured by now she would be ready to move on.

The mansion was impenetrable unless Xavier wanted to let you in, but S.H.I.E.L.D. were happy to wait for her to leave. According to their sources, she left once a week to use her powers for good down at the children’s hospital in helping those in pain to get some sleep. She would bundle up to cover her mutation as she walked the two miles and was grateful Westchester was often chilly, it was less suspicious. She would sing to the children to avoid suspicion and they would fall asleep. The nurses would always wonder how she managed it. 

S.H.I.E.L.D. did not need to wonder. They knew. 

Rosie left the hospital on this particular day in her lilac duffle coat, her long blonde hair covering her tell-tale ears and her contacts firmly in place. The school had done wonders for helping her control her powers but it could do little for her physical betrayals. As she made her way down the steps she pulled on her gloves and sang to herself. She was so lost in  _ Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo  _ that she didn’t notice the black car or the man in the black suit until she was almost nose to nose with him. 

“Rosamund Easton?” The man asked in a gentle voice to get her attention. Rosie looked up at him and frowned. 

“Do I know you?” She asked. Impossible. She never left the mansion. If he wasn’t a mutant, she didn’t know him. And she didn’t know him. 

“No. But we know you.” The man said, reaching into his pocket and holding up a badge. “My name is Agent Phil Coulson.” 

“Agent?” Rosie raised an eyebrow and looked at the badge. “S..H.I.E.L.D?” She blinked at him. “Never heard of it.” 

“Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.” Agent Coulson explained, folding his badge back into his jacket. 

“Sounds important.” Rosie asked. “What do you want?”

“You.” Agent Coulson replied. Rosie frowned. “We know all about you, Miss Easton.” He lowered his voice. “Your enhancement is quite extraordinary.”

“It’s a mutation.” Rosie replied. “And I’m not interested.” She tried to side-step him. 

“I didn’t offer you anything yet.” Agent Coulson stepped in her way. 

“I know you’re about to.” Rosie explained. “But I’m not interested in being a lab experiment.” 

“We’re not asking you to be.” Coulson replied. “Please, will you let me explain?” He opened the car door and gestured at the backseat. 

“How do I know you’re not about to kidnap me.”

“From what I’ve heard you can handle yourself if I was.” Coulson smiled. 

Rosie looked him up and down and found she could trust him. She had always had a knack for telling that. She considered her options… walk back to the mansion in the freezing cold, or sit in the back of a car and listen to a pitch from Men in Black. She knew what Piotr would have suggested. She sighed and climbed into the car carefully. 

Coulson climbed in beside her and the faceless driver set off down the drive from the hospital. For a little while there was silence and then Coulson launched into his pitch. 

“The truth is, Miss Easton, we’ve been watching you for a while. As much as we can, of course, without getting under the feet of Professor Xavier, though I’m sure he knows we’ve been close.” Coulson chuckled softly and Rosie couldn’t help but agree. 

“What do you want with me specifically?” Rosie asked. “There are plenty of mutants on that property.”

“You have a set of skills we feel we could use.” Coulson explained, “And we know you’re not happy there.”

“How could you possibly know that?” Rosie asked with a frown. 

“We have ways.” Coulson opened the black file on his lap and a computerised hologram sprung from it with Piotr’s face on it. Rosie blinked at it as she felt her chest tighten. “We know losing Piotr Rasputin broke you. Anyone losing someone they love would break them.” 

Rosie looked down at her gloved fingers, her head heavy. 

“Anyone losing someone they loved would want to do something about it. Avenge them, so to speak.” Coulson said carefully, changing the file.

“Xavier wouldn’t let me.” Rosie said in a quiet voice. 

“No.” Coulson nodded. “Professor Xavier is a great mind in many ways, but his need to protect his kind outweighs the right to choose 80% of the time.” He looked softly at her. “My boss, Fury, thinks differently. He wants to offer you a chance to make a difference in Piotr’s memory.”

Rosie looked up and into his eyes, frowning. “How does he know so much about me?”

Coulson did not directly answer her question as he changed the file to something called ‘Avengers Initiative’. “Fury wants to recruit you to a team of enhanced individuals who will exist solely to make a difference. He thinks you will be perfect.” Coulson held the file out to Rosie so that she could read it, watching as she cautiously flicked through it. “It would mean relocating to our facility in New York City and training amongst the other enhanced individuals we have gathered.” 

“Will there be other mutants?” Rosie asked quietly as she read the list of ‘already recruited’. She didn’t recognise any names: Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton… 

“So far you are our only from Xavier’s school.” Coulson explained, “If you say yes of course.” 

Rosie was beyond tempted. It was no secret that she had outgrown the X-Men. The truth was this Avengers Initiative sounded perfect. 

“It comes with job benefits. Accommodation, good pay, access to any and all facilities, dental…” He flicked the hologram to show her the list of job perks. Rosie’s eyebrows raised. She was pretty much sold. Coulson took back the file and waited for her to confirm or deny. 

“I’d be giving up my whole life…” She said in a small voice as she realised they were pulling up to the Xavier estate. 

“We understand that.” Coulson nodded. “And we are determined to make it worth your while.” He rummaged in his pocket and held out a card. “Tell you what. Think it over. If you decide to come down and check it out before saying yes, give me a call.” The car came to a stop. “I hope you will.” 

Rosie took the card and blinked at him. 

“Really it comes down to this. Which would you rather be known as? X-Men, teacher for the rest of your days to those who are like you… or Avenger, making a difference to everyone, not just those like yourself.” Coulson reached over to open her door for her, indicating the conversation was done. “I look forward to your call, Miss Easton.”

“Thank you for the lift.” Rosie said in a daze as she climbed out of the car. Coulson smiled at her as he closed the door again and Rosie watched as the car pulled away, dark and foreboding in this quiet picturesque corner of New York state. She looked down at the card and thought about Coulson’s words…

X-Men, or Avenger?

She knew which one sounded more tempting. 


End file.
